"When I first got into open source many moons ago, the advocacy movement was a thriving and vocal part of the community. Most of the movers and shakers back in the day were advocating the use of free and open software at work, to their friends and to their local community via LUGs and other groups. Back then, advocacy was a key part of the community, not only in showing existing computer users this alternative software, but also advising disadvantaged people for whom free software could really open up the doors to skill, employment and potential. Recently it seems this community-driven advocacy effort has petered out somewhat, and there are far fewer people talking about, conducting, exploring, refining and pushing open aource advocacy."

Yes, there is. Being at someone elses mercy for fixes and added features isn't so hot. Not being able to see the code that makes my software tick sucks. Not being able to share and help others is wrong.

None of these criticisms suggests that there's anything "wrong" with proprietary software. The overwhelming majority of people could care less about those issues. If you're trying to "grow" that criticism, you're incubating it among an insignificant portion of the OS market.

You're cherry-picking. My argument was based on the fact that practically nobody in the real world needs access to source code in order to find value in software. Availability of source code just isn't an issue for them.

You want to veer into religion. Sorry, not biting. I don't see software as a religious issue. It's a tool. If the proprietary stuff works for you, so be it: Use it. If open source code works better, so be it: Use it.

None of these criticisms suggests that there's anything "wrong" with proprietary software. The overwhelming majority of people could care less about those issues.

I'm sure they could. One thing that users of proprietary software do seem to like to do is share that software with one another. Lending installation CDs to friends etc, or even installing copies on every machine in your house. This can be illegal with proprietary software, whereas you can quite happily share FOSS software with whoever you like.

The law and human nature are just opposed in this case, and I'm sure people who share software in this way don't feel as if they are doing anything wrong.